


Some Adjustment Needed

by Sand3



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Multi, Other, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28370016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sand3/pseuds/Sand3
Summary: Mutation is a gift. That's what we have to say over and over. And sometimes it's not hard to see it; sometimes you have to squint, but there's usually a silver lining. And sometimes, on very rare occasion, no matter how many times you say it, it's not true. Because sometimes, on very rare occasion, the x-gene manifests a terminal mutation. Sometimes mutation is a death sentence.When you have the power to restore a life, just exactly as it was, what are you supposed to do then? Say "Welcome back. You've got three months to live. Again."? When do you drop the pretense and admit that to the rule, the promise, the solace which defines mutantdom, there are exceptions? Can the promise still survive if there are sometimes, on very rare occasion, exceptions?And who decides where the lines get drawn?
Relationships: Josh Foley & Kevin Ford, Josh Foley/Julian Keller
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	Some Adjustment Needed

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Krakoa status-quo in general and vague references to X-Men issue 5.

“‘Eugenics’ is a dirty word, the Nazis made it so disgusting that nobody wants to touch it with a stick,” Joshua said, standing in the middle of the Council circle, his posture flawless and face a mask of calm. “But the problem was never the science. The problem was how easy it is for political agendas to _pervert_ the science, and even when you earnestly try to follow the pure science... the problem is defining what is and isn’t a disease. There’s plenty of humans out there who, in an earnestly benevolent if small-minded way, believe that the X-gene is a disease. The problem is _ethical_ , not scientific.” He glanced down a minute, taking a deep breath, before lifting his head again. He’d positioned himself with his back toward the Winter table, and Emma suspected it was to ignore that disconcerting, eager leer Sinister was wearing as he leaned his elbows on the table, chin rested on his woven fingers. “But we can’t _ethically_ ignore the fact that a small percentage of mutations are legitimately terminal. And I emphasize that it is a _small_ , but still _real_ , percentage.”

“Opening such a discussion on the topic of eugenics begs the question, are you suggesting something like the blood-tests that some governments require as part of the process in applying for a marriage license?” Emma asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Are we able to screen prospective parents for potential terminality in their coupling?”

“Not at this time, and maybe never. There’s too many variables in how an X-gene expresses. We may never really be able to predict it _definitively_ even in a gamete, much less the parents. At this point predicting it in pre-expression children is less than fifty percent accurate,” Joshua answered, looking back at her. “My concern is with the resurrection protocols. I believe it’s unethical to resurrect a mutant with that terminality intact.”

“And it’s more ethical to _steal_ their mutantity from them?” Erik challenged, a dangerous edge to his voice.

“No.” Joshua shook his head. “In the most extreme cases, the terminal mutant’s X-gene could be replaced with a donor X-gene from another mutant, but most of the time only _slight_ adjustments would be needed to circumvent the terminality and tweak their mutation into a variation of itself that’s more benign.”

“I believe you’ve raised a valid concern, Elixir,” Charles said, as Erik leaned his chin against a fist next to him, looking broodily thoughtful. “Although I think that, rather than waiting for such a time as the enacting of resurrection protocols becomes necessary, it would be best for our top genetic experts to put together a list, of those mutants currently living, who truly are _inherently_ terminal, so that the persons in question may have a say in how we will proceed upon their inevitable, temporary, death.”

“That’s moot,” Joshua replied. “There’s only one inherently terminal mutant who’s currently alive, all the rest are in the resurrection cue.”

“And if yeh’r askin’ for an expert opinion on what the dead ’uns want, the _fuckin’_ answer is ‘ _yes’!_ ” Proteus called loudly from where the rest of the Five were standing just outside the Council’s circle. “Dyin’ every ruddy _minute_ of every ruddy _day_ is no ruddy _holiday_. If I dinna have to _stay_ this way to turn the fuckin’ wheel, I’d be sayin’ ‘sign me the _fuck_ up!’”

“Thank you, Proteus,” Charles said with a calm nod.

“Now tell them the _best_ part, Elixir,” Sinister said gleefully, folding his arms on the table, grin so wide nearly every tooth was visible. “Tell them exactly what a little bird told me. And by ‘little bird’, I mean an alert my gene-library flagged about a certain _discrepancy_ in the records, _hmm?_ ”

Joshua’s eyes narrowed and he failed to entirely hide a grimace, glancing down again for a moment.

“ _Josh_ ,” Kate said sternly, her voice taking on its most tutelary tone. “ _What’s_ he talking about.”

“Oh _yes_ , let’s _talk_ about it!” Sinister agreed. “What _will_ we be calling Mister Ford when he wakes up tomorrow, _hmm?_ Somehow I have a suspicion that ‘Wither’ will no longer be appropriate.”

“ _Joshua_...” Emma groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose as a surge of frustration overtook her; it wasn’t that she couldn’t see the logic, even merit, to it, but she never liked being blindsided.

“You chose to _implement_ your proposed revisions before receiving Council approval?” Erik growled.

“I’m prepared to accept the consequences,” Joshua relied.

“Because he knows he’s _immune_ to consequences,” Mystique said, sounding amused. “Without every single one of the Five, this whole ship sinks. He could go on a murder spree, and all we’d be able to do is say ‘oh well’.”

“Elixir’s actions are those of a savior, seeking only to preserve and strengthen our people,” Paris announced, casting her a sideways glare.

“I don’t think anybody doubts that Josh’s intentions were good,” Kurt said. “But setting a precedent of begging forgiveness rather than permission would be dangerous.”

“A _priest_ takes some issue with begging _forgiveness?_ ” Paris demanded.

“I think you’re taking--”

“ _The Parousia needs NO ONE’S permission!_ ” Paris shouted, slamming a fist down on the table.

“ _Paris_ , we’ve _talked_ about this!” Joshua exclaimed, cheeks going coppery as Erik groaned and Mystique started snickering. “It’s ‘ _Josh’. ‘Jooooosh’_.”

“I find myself forced to question whether Kevin Ford would have even qualified as terminal,” Ororo brought them back to topic. “Living with his mutation may have required significant accommodations, but was it really _killing_ him?”

Joshua had his bottom lip between his teeth and his hands balled up at his sides, posture stiff and head slightly lowered, then he lifted it and looked back at her. “The fact that it killed him when and where it _did_ was my fault--”

“ _Debatable_ ,” Emma interjected; perhaps it wasn’t the most strictly professional phrasing, but this wasn’t a session, and she preferred to redress the fallacy of his misplaced guilt wherever it came up.

Joshua continued on as if she hadn’t spoken, “--but there was a possibility that his powers _would_ have turned self-cannibalizing as they grew, either in a truly terminal way or a kill-or-die way like Omega Red or Proteus.” He swallowed, pausing a moment before adding, “Environmental factors could have played a role in whether or not his mutation eventually become cancerous, but... besides that possibility, we actually _couldn’t_ resurrect him without making adjustments.”

“We tried to resurrect him as is, and he destroyed his own egg before he’d finished gestating,” Fabio called, and then tensed up nervously as the Council's eyes turned to him.

“You were all aware of these adjustments...” Charles murmured, and then sighed. “As Nightcrawler pointed out, you’re beginning a dangerous precedent.”

“You mean we’re strong-arming you again,” Hope corrected, voice calm and expression grave. “You know we don’t do it frivolously. The only options were to make the changes that would allow him to survive the resurrection process, or to abandon him. Like some of you abandoned him before.”

Emma gritted her teeth hard for a moment and forced herself not to glare at the girl. She swallowed, took a breath, and put on a genial smile. “ _I_ for one was _all for_ your decision to put children at the top of the resurrection cue,” she reminded them, and Kate nodded beside her. “And I likewise feel that wherever policy concerns the resurrection protocols, each of the Five should have a vote equal to two Council members.” That earned some raised eyebrows in her direction.

“Meaning that if they have solidarity within their own ranks, they can only be overruled by a virtually-unanimous vote of the full ranks of the Quiet Council against them,” Erik noted, frowning deeply.

“They _are_ the resurrection protocols. It only makes sense that their voices should be the loudest on such matters,” Emma retorted, crossing her arms. “After all, if they decide to go on strike, they could overturn any vote of the Quiet Council anyway. To all intents and purposes, our decisions are merely _suggestions_ to them.”

“They’re _children_ ,” Shaw muttered.

“They’re young adults, and they’re the heart of Krakoa,” Charles sighed, shaking his head. “All of Emma’s points seem valid, but most especially the last. I believe that all we cando is offer the Five our opinions, experience, and advice.”

“After all, what are we going to do, deny them _access_ to the gene library? Shut down resurrection protocols entirely?” Mystique pointed out with a shrug, and then raised her hand in an official vote. “I cast my _entirely irrelevant_ vote that Emma is _right_ , and that trying to tell the Five how to do their job is stupid and _pointless_. They’re going to do things _their_ way, and we can’t stop them.”

“I agree,” Paris said, raising his hand.

“Oh now _there’s_ a shocker, the crusader deferring to his ‘Parousia’?” Sinister chuckled, and then raised his hand as well. “Aye, for what it’s worth. Nobody ever accused _me_ of not being _open minded_ about a little genetic massaging.”

“... I wish to set a condition,” Kurt said, his brow knit with concern. “I wish that the Five will come to us to discuss policy _before_ implementing it. There must be discussion. Even if we cannot overrule your decisions, as Charles said, at least allow us to offer you our experience and advice.”

Joshua glanced toward the rest of the Five, taking a visual poll, and then turned back toward the Summer table and nodded. “Okay.”

Kurt looked relieved and raised his hand in vote.

Beside him, Ororo sighed, tilting her head and looking torn, then he shook it surrenderingly and raised her hand. “It serves no true practical purpose to argue, and I have no desire to foster tension between our bodies.”

“For harmony, cooperation and trust,” Kate said as if raising a toast, while raising her hand instead. “Glancing around the room, I have to wonder if said tension wouldn’t be of the _generational_ variety? Proteus and I might be at the overlap, but averages being averages, and like our own Black King pointed out, it seems to me there’s perhaps a little bit of ‘kids table’ involved with this impulse to try to put Baby in the corner here.”

“ _With_ the understanding that these special votes apply _only_ to matters directly concerning the resurrection protocols...” Erik said in a quiet but firm voice as he ignored Kate’s musing, and he raised his hand. “Agreed.”

“The ayes have a majority,” Charles announced. “Emma’s motion is passed.” Then he turned his head to face Joshua. “But going forward, I ask that you present before the Council each individual case of a terminal mutation before taking action upon it, and please allow Henry, Sage and Councilman Sinister to go over your data and submit their independent opinions on your conclusions.”

“Okay,” Joshua said again.

000

“Slight problem,” Fabio said, as he frowned and knocked on the egg. “The shell’s too thick.”

Josh laid a hand against the shell, feeling past it with his powers. “... So’s the membrane,” he murmured.

“No problem a golf club wonna sort,” Proteus remarked with a smirk.

“Perhaps something a little gentler,” Charles suggested with an indulgent smile.

“Is it too thick for the chisel?” Eva asked.

“Mm, no, that’ll get through the outer shell,” Fabio agreed. “The membrane’s rubberyish though.”

“Knife should work. I think it’s about like extra-thick shower curtain in there,” Josh said.

“Time to make an omelet then,” Hope decided, walking to the storage cabinets and digging the tools they rarely had to use out of a drawer before coming back. She handed the chisel and small hammer to Fabio and the knife to Josh, and then rested her hands against the egg.

Fabio started carefully chiseling cracks into the surface while Eva and Proteus pried loosened pieces away from the wobbling membrane beneath. Once they’d peeled the shell off of a large enough area, they stood back, and Josh knelt down, pressing a hand against the squishy, waterbed-sack of the membrane to feel out the position of the body inside. Then he slipped the knife through the barrier and slid it slowly down, warm albumen pouring over his hands and arms. The sleeve inside started reaching and squirming through the new opening, instinctively crawling out into life like they all did. Josh caught him as he tumbled out. “Easy,” he murmured, knowing the sleeve didn’t understand language yet, but soft voices still tended to soothe them anyway.

“How’s he feel?” Proteus asked.

Josh paused to carefully consider the question, concentrating on the slippery, gooey skin under his palms, searching for any twinge of pain. He felt his own lips pull into a smile. “Fine. Perfect,” he answered, and then got to his feet and stepped back as Charles moved in.

He crouched in front of the sleeve and caught a hand under the chin, lifting his head. “So it would seem,” he murmured, letting his hand drop again, and then went silent for a moment.

The reborn mutant shivered as his psyche was transferred into his new body, and then jerked and scrambled as he was overtaken by startled franticness. “ _What?! No-- What?!_ ” Kevin gasped.

“It’s okay,” Josh said calmly, reaching down and catching Kevin’s hand as he flailed. “You’re okay.”

“I- I- I was- I--” Kevin stammered in a panic, and then glanced at the hand he found himself gripping, staring for a moment as his mind was no doubt registering the skin color. He recoiled, his head snapped up, staring at Josh with shock and fury. “ _YOU!_ ” Kevin launched himself to his feet and wrapped his hands around Josh’s throat with startling speed. “ _You son of a bitch!_ ”

“ _Oy!_ Knock it off!” Eva and Proteus grabbed at Kevin, dragging him off of Josh.

“Let _go!_ Get your _hands_ off...” Kevin trailed off as he noticed his bare arms, and the bare hands restraining them. “... W-What...?” he whispered, confusion and disbelief clouding his face, his brow pinching for a moment before going up again in shock. “ _Why am I naked?!_ ”

“Calm down, Kevin,” Charles called.

“Most people come into the world that way, it’s why they call it a ‘birthday suit’,” Eva replied, letting Kevin go as his mood shifted from homicidal to mortified.

“Here, it’s fine,” Fabio said, holding a towel out to him.

“What the _fuck_ is this?!” Kevin demanded, grabbing the towel and pulling it hastily around himself, cheeks already red, casting Eva and Hope particularly embarrassed glances.

“Don’t get flustered. We see a lot of dongs,” Hope drawled.

“And muffs. All very professional, innit,” Proteus added with a grin.

“You... You...” Kevin glanced down at his bare arm again, staring at his damp, sticky skin for a moment, and then looked back up at Josh again and glared. “Why are you _old?!_ ”

“You’ve been dead five years, Kevin,” Josh answered quietly.

“Fucking _liar!_ ” Kevin snapped.

“It’s true, Kevin, but it’s all right now,” Charles said calmly. “Welcome to Krakoa. Things are going to be better.”

Kevin stared at him for a long minute, and then looked back to Josh again. “What did you do to me?” he whispered, the outrage in his eyes now replaced by fear. “They- They _touched_ me. What did you do to me? It was _you_ , wasn’t it? What did you _do_ to me?”

“I modified your mutation. We couldn’t regrow your body exactly the same as it was before,” Josh answered, looking evenly back at him. “You’d burn out your egg.”

“You took it away?” Kevin asked, a riot of emotions flickering over his face, and then the outrage started to reassert itself. “You could do that the _whole time?_ ”

“No and no,” Josh replied, shaking his head. “I didn’t take your mutation away, I _changed_ it, and I could only do that before the first mitosis.” He glanced away. “We had to regrow your body completely anyway. Even if we _could_ have pulled it off keeping your old mutation intact, we all agreed that’d probably be pretty damn cruel.”

“This- This is what? Some kind of clone factory?” Kevin whispered, casting his eyes around. “Am I a clone?”

“Your body was cloned, but your psyche, your soul, is you,” Charles assured him. Kevin sank to the floor, trembling and staring into space. “Kevin--” Charles started after a minute.

But Kevin had no time for him and focused his attention on Josh again. “You fucking _killed_ me!” he accused.

Josh bit his lip and glanced away guiltily.

“Oh _fuck_ this prat,” Proteus growled. “Man dinna have a right to _defend_ himself? You dinna hear _me_ throwin’ a fit at Rasputin.”

“Kevin--”

“ _Back off!_ ” Kevin snapped at Charles.

“Shower?” Josh cut in.

“W-What?” Kevin glanced at him again.

“That stuff gets sticky and itchy when it dries,” Josh explained, looking evenly back down at him, and then pointed. “There’s showers over there. We’ll bring you something to wear.”

Kevin stared blankly up at him.

“Or do you want to sit on the floor and _bitch_ forever?” Josh asked.

“ _Fuck_ you,” Kevin whispered, and then picked himself up and stomped over to the showers.

000

Kevin stared at the wall, his mind racing so fast it blurred into indecipherable gray. He died. Foley killed him. (He didn’t know Foley could do that.) He wasn’t dead. His body was a clone. And Foley had done that too. (Another thing he didn’t know Foley could do.) Kevin lifted his hands, staring down at them as rivulets of water streamed over his skin. Three people had touched his skin. And they were somehow fine. Just like he was somehow fine. And somehow Foley was responsible for _that_ too. Because apparently he could change mutants’ powers. (One more thing Kevin hadn’t known Foley could do.) He’d been dead, but he was alive. He stared blankly at the wall again, throat knotting. Was Laurie alive too?

“So the basic ready-to-wears are kinda ‘Luke Skywalker on Tatooine’,” Foley’s voice called from somewhere outside the shower curtain, jerking Kevin out of his thoughts. “You can use the app to order yourself something more ‘Sith Lord’, but these’ll keep your dangly-bits from dangling ’til your black-on-black with black trim is ready.”

Kevin narrowed his eyes, glaring at the wall. “... _Why?_ ” he growled.

“Hey, if you want to go au naturale, that’s allowed,” Foley replied. “Y’just seemed a little concerned about it a few minutes ago.”

“ _Fuck_ you, Foley. _Why?_ ” Kevin demanded again.

“Moonstar.”

“ _What?_ ”

“My name’s Josh Moonstar.”

“ _Fuck_ you.”

He heard a sigh. “... When you were trying to kill me... I’m not sure you actually _could_ have, I think my powers might have kept keeping up... but it hurt a _lot_ ,” Foley said quietly. “I couldn’t really think. It hurt so much, I was running on instinct or reflex... A few hours later, all I could think about was a dozen different ways I could have stopped you without...”

“... That’s not what I’m asking,” Kevin whispered, and then swallowed. “... I _know_ why you killed me. You... You were... maybe right to do it... What I want to know is why you... why I’m...”

“You are the face of my nightmares, Kevin,” Foley said. “About three times a week now... At first it was every night... And it’s not just guilt. Most people probably think it’s just some kind of guilt, but it’s not... I’m fucking _terrified_.”

“... Why? I was dead,” Kevin said quietly, frowning. “If you were so fucking scared, why’d you bring me back?”

“I’m not scared of what you tried to do to me. I’m not scared you’d try again... I’m scared how easy I could go down that path,” Foley said, his voice a disquieting monotone. “You’re the face in my nightmares, not just because I killed someone and it _happened_ to be you, it’s because I’m also scared of _becoming_ you.”

“... How?” Kevin asked, feeling more sick and confused the deeper they got into this impromptu real-talk. “I don’t even... How did you even...?”

“Because I’m not really a healer, Kevin. The teachers misread me at first, and then they kinda casually covered it up when they realized, because they didn’t want anybody outside the community catching wind,” Foley said. “I’m a biokinetic. A strong enough one they were worried about Stark trying to black-bag me or something during the whole registration thing.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I can fuck around with people’s bodies,” Foley answered. “I can heal them, I can hurt them, I could probably do creepy shit like Masque got up to... and I can kick a few nucleic acids around in a chromosome.”

“... What did you do to my powers?” Kevin whispered.

“... When I killed you, what I did was basically reverse the direction on your powers, make you shoot up the cockpit,” Foley explained. “So I asked myself, can I expand on that?”

“What does that mean?”

“Get dressed.”

“What?” Kevin glanced at the curtain, frowning.

“Towel and clothes on the bench. Get dressed,” Foley replied, and then Kevin could hear footsteps moving away.

“Asshole,” Kevin whispered, and turned off the water. He pushed back the curtain and stepped out into the dry half of the stall, finding another big, fluffy towel and some white clothes folded up on the bench. He dried off and picked up a wrappy, Asiany kind of top. He thought it felt like cotton, could he really wear this? Three people had touched his skin and been _fine_. He pulled the clothes on and then paused. There weren’t any gloves. Did he still need gloves? There weren’t any shoes. Everybody needs fucking _shoes_. He grimaced and walked through the outer curtain, damp towel in hand, and found Foley standing a couple yards away, waiting, still looking so eerily _old_. He’d said it was five years, would that be twenty-one? Twenty-two?

“Hamper,” he murmured, pointing at a wicker hamper next to Kevin.

Kevin dropped the towel in it and glared back. “What did you do to my powers?” he demanded again.

“Come on,” Foley said, turning away with a beckoning wave.

“ _Fuck_ you! What did you do to my powers?!”

“I’m walking thiiiiiis waaaaay!” Foley called as he kept going.

“ _Asshole_ ,” Kevin growled, chasing after him. The other people who had been there when Kevin woke up seemed to have disappeared, leaving him and Foley alone in some huge, scifi, amorphous pod chamber. They went out through a big, irregularly shaped, open doorway and emerged from what turned out to be a giant fuck-off tree, out into the jungle. And it was _hot_. “Where the hell are we?”

“Krakoa. Right on the equator,” Foley cast over his shoulder as he kept on trucking.

Kevin snarled, hands clenching hard into fists. “ _Hey!_ ” he shouted, running down the steps and after him to catch up. “ _Hey!_ ” He grabbed Foley’s shoulder, yanking back to force him to turn. “What the _fuck_ did you do to my _fucking powers?!_ ”

“ _That_.” Foley pointed past him, back the way they’d come, and Kevin looked back in confusion. There was a trail he hadn’t noticed on the way out, of little patches of grass and flowers poking up higher than the stuff around them, in a sort of janky dotted line. Like footprints. “Look down,” Foley murmured, and Kevin did; the grass and little flowers around his bare feet were growing so fast he could see it.

“... What the fuck?” Kevin whispered.

“You gonna complain that it’s kinda girly with the flowers and all?” Foley asked, and Kevin could hear him smirking.

“Shut up. What did you do?”

“I turned your powers inward before, made them attack your own body,” Foley explained. “So I got to wondering, can I turn the _whole shebang_ around?”

Kevin blinked. He felt something wet on his cheek. “... Why would you do this?”

“Maybe this is how I confront my innermost fear,” Foley said softly. “Maybe it doesn’t really change how I’m afraid I could go... But maybe I’ve at least taken the _face_ off of my nightmares.”

“... You were scared of turning into me... so instead you turned me into you?” Kevin asked, and swallowed, his throat feeling tight.

“No, our powers aren’t really related at all,” Foley said, and he turned, starting to walk again. “Completely different mechanisms and spheres of effect. You’re not healing those plants right now, you’re nourishing them.”

Kevin wiped his hand over his face and started following him again. “Nourishing.”

“When you zoom all the way down to the tiniest core of something, everything’s about energy. That’s, like, an Einstein thing or something... Your powers before pulled energy out of organic stuff so bad and fast it just kind shredded it at the tiny energy level. Now instead of pulling energy in, you’re _outputting_ ,” He paused and glanced back at Kevin. “A thing to keep in mind: you might find yourself getting hungry a lot now, and, well, lots of powers have annoying side effects, this one’s is probably going to be hanging onto enough energy to run your body. So don’t worry about how much you’re eating, just eat. I mean, make sure it’s _food_ food and not junk food, but if you’re hungry, you should eat. Seriously, I’m not really sure how long it’s going to be from ‘I could eat’ to passing out, it might be an hour, it might be ten minutes, I don’t know yet.”

“So you’re saying instead of me killing the grass, the grass is trying to kill me now?” Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Foley wrinkled his nose and held up his hand with thumb and finger not quite touching. “ _Little_ bit,” he said. “It’s fine. But don’t fall asleep in the grass, I don’t know if you’d be able to wake up.”

“Comforting.”

“It’s a prolonged exposure issue, and I’m not sure whether or not it will be much of one with people and animals. The thing with a lot of plants is they can take and take and take and just keep growing, most animals have a limit,” Foley said, walking again. “And it should only be an issue at all with stuff that’s _currently_ alive. There shouldn’t be any problem with natural fabrics like you had before. But, ah, most of the architecture here is alive, so you should be sleeping on a metal-frame bed away from the walls, at least for now, while we figure out the sensitivity levels and whether you’re going to be able to throttle back.”

“But... I’m not going to hurt everybody I touch?” Kevin murmured.

“Nope.”

“... Is Laurie...?”

“My team put dead minors at the top of the resurrection cue. At first Charles was all ‘we have to consider security and logistics and we should resurrect the most useful mutants first’ but we were like ‘ _nope_ , kids first’,” Foley replied. “... Laurie’s been here two months, part of the first batch. She didn’t need any work done like you, just... boom.”

“Yeah, bet you couldn’t wait,” Kevin muttered.

“Dude, I’m twenty-two now, Laurie’s still sixteen,” he glanced over his shoulder, frowning. “What kind of fucking creep do you think I am?”

“I’ve thought a _lot_ of things about what kind of fucking creep _you_ are,” Kevin retorted. The frown dropped off Foley’s face and he laughed. Kevin bristled. “ _Anyway_ , where the fuck are we going?”

“The Sextant. It’s kind of like the vaguely defined college- _ish_ town,” Foley answered. “A lot of the people who are over fourteen, under thirty, that’s our village.”

Kevin’s steps faltered. “So... everybody who probably hates me,” he muttered.

Foley glanced back at him again. “... And Laurie,” he said.

Kevin glanced down, swallowed, and started walking again.

“This is gonna feel weird the first time,” Foley said, pausing.

Kevin looked up to see him standing next to some kind of big oval-hoop made of twisty vines with a shimmery film stretched over the middle. “What is that?”

“A portal. The Sextant’s six miles away, I’m not walking,” Foley answered.

“A _portal_.”

“Yup.” Foley walked into the shimmer and disappeared.

Kevin stared at it for a minute. He didn’t have to follow the smug asshole. He could just run. Nothing was stopping him. Except that he had no idea where he was. He gritted his teeth in annoyance, and then walked through the vine-portal. There was a split-second sensation of gummy-clingy-pully and then he was stumbling out onto more grass, tensed up and unsettled by the weird feeling. “ _Ugh!_ ” He heard Foley laughing again and snapped his head up. “Shut the fuck up!”

“Hoooleee _shit_.”

Kevin’s blood ran cold. He turned his head to see Match looking back at him, and standing right next to him, Onyxx. They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Onyxx turned his head to look at Foley. “Fuckin’ _really_ , dude?”

“Fucking yeah, dude,” Foley retorted, and then grabbed Kevin’s arm and started dragging him along as he strode into an open field-ish courtyard-ish space in the middle of some funky dome buildings. He put his fingers in his mouth and gave a loud, sharp whistle. “HEAR YE _HEAR_ YE! NOW TAKING YOUR _QUESTIONS_ AND _CONCERNS!_ LET’S GET IT _OUT_ OF THE WAY!” he bellowed.

“You _fucking_ asshole!” Kevin gasped, a bubble of panic rising in him.

He heard a soft thump behind him but didn’t fully register it until it was followed by a voice. “Hey, yeah, I’ve got one.” Kevin turned to catch sight of Julian half a second before a fist was slamming into his face _hard_. Hard enough to knock him straight out of Foley’s grip and send him to the ground.

“ _Julian!_ ”

“Whadaya think of my _titanium_ , ya _fuckin_ _g_ psycho?!” Julian demanded savagely, swooping down to grab the front of Kevin’s shirt with one hand while and brandishing a gleaming metal fist at him, which explained why Kevin’s face felt pretty definitely broken. “Nothing organic here, so not much you can do about _them_ apples, _is_ there?”

“God _damn it_ , Julian!” Foley snapped.

“ _Who’s_ the ‘fucking psycho’ here, Julian?” Surge demanded, grabbing Julian from behind and trying to pull him back. Her arms were joined a moment later by silvery ones. Kevin’s eyes met Cessily’s for just a moment, as she helped Surge drag Julian off of him, then she looked away.

Kevin yelped as Foley’s hands cupped his face. “Good job breaking his _zygomatic_ , you _complete ass!_ ” he snapped over his shoulder, even as the pain in Kevin’s cheek vanished.

“ _Seriously?!_ ” Julian shouted back. “ _Why?!_ Why _him?!_ After what he _did_ to _Onyxx?!_ And _Cessily?!_ And _you?!_ ”

“Take your _chivalric bullshit_ and _cram it_ , Julian! _Nobody_ asked you to be their _fucking_ white knight!” Foley retorted, straightening up and glaring.

The fury and outrage on Julian’s face was joined by hurt. “He _attacked_ us and--”

“You mean _after_ the teachers _abandoned_ him to get _brainwashed_ for six months by a _death-cult crazy bitch?!_ ” Foley demanded.

“The _Manson_ girls are still in jail!”

“Charlie Manson wasn’t a _fucking telepath!_ ”

“He _made_ his choice!”

“ _LITERAL! TELEPATH!_ ” Foley screamed back. “ _You want to go after the PAWN because the QUEEN’S above your pay grade?! That’s pretty FUCKING COWARDLY, Julian!_ ”

Julian closed his mouth with a clenched jaw and stared at him for a few seconds, and then turned sharply and stormed away.

“Julian!” Foley called, and then started chasing after him. “ _Julian!_ ”

“... Well that sounded a whole lot like a sleeping-on-the-couch kinda yell,” Surge murmured.

“Sooo I guess he’s _not_ answering questions then?” Network asked, watching the retreat.

“I got a question about what’s up with this _grass_ ,” DJ noted.

“Yeah, that’s about my number one too,” Pixie agreed.

“... He turned my powers inside out. Now the grass is eating me,” Kevin muttered, not looking any of them in the eye. He rubbed a hand over his face; with the pain in his face-bones gone, it made the headache that had been creeping up on him feel a lot stronger now.

“Whoa whoa whoa, he switched your ‘kills stuff’ powers into ‘stuff kills _you_ ’ powers?” Collider asked.

“ _Appropes_ ,” Bling said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Kevin said, and shrugging felt hard. “He said... that...” The light dimmed and then blackened.

“Holy _shit!_ ”

“Oh my God! Get him off the grass!”

“Jesus _Christ!_ ”

The voices got warped and distant, like he was hearing them from the bottom of a swimming pool. Then they stretched out and blurred into vague mumbles as he drifted. He lost track of why that was even unusual. Then something hooked him and reeled him out. He opened his eyes, but only got them halfway and couldn’t seem to focus. There was a hand at the back of his neck and a cup pressed against his mouth.

“Drink up,” a girl’s voice ordered him.

He tried to tell her to fuck off, but when he opened his mouth there was thick, sickly-sweet stuff pouring into it. He gagged and coughed once but then managed to swallow; he wasn’t totally sure that was a good idea, because the consistency and weird sweetness made him think it might be straight up cake batter.

“We probably should have made him eat something straight out of the egg,” a guy’s voice noted. “We should add granola bars to the on-hand supplies.”

“Yeah, I actually feel kinda dumb that we haven’t thought about that before,” the girl’s voice said. “Surprising it hasn’t already been an issue.”

“I reckoned Josh’d make the cafe first stop on his tour,” a Britishy voice said. “Never though he was gonna just up and ditch the lad after bein’ so insistent about takin’ him around himself.”

“Julian threw a tantrum,” a more familiar voice, Surge, explained.

Kevin finished the cup of cake batter and tried to squirm, sit up (was he even lying down?) as the cup went away. “Hang on,” the girl over him said, and then hands were on his cheeks. “Needed to get some calories inside you to work with, now I can speed them along a little.”

Kevin started to warm up, only then even realizing he’d been cold, and opened his eyes to find the redhead from the pod chamber hovering over him. “... The fuck?” he mumbled.

“You’re going to eat a big sandwich now, and then you’re going to mark the time in the tracker app Eva’s setting up for you,” she said. “And for the next couple weeks, any time you eat and any time you start feeling crappy, you’re going to mark the time, so you can start figuring out how long it takes to run down your batteries. You’re also going to keep emergency food in your pockets at all times.”

“Whatever,” Kevin tried to push her back, shaking his head to clear it.

“No. Not ‘whatever’. If you can’t keep track of it yourself, we’re going to give you a babysitter, and we’ll make sure it’s somebody who won’t be any fun,” the redhead retorted, frowning sternly at him.

“ _Fine_. Fuck. Get out of my face,” Kevin snapped. “Did I just drink _cake?_ ”

“Post workout protein shake stuff. We mixed it thick,” the heavy guy from the pod chamber said. “You stalled because you ran out of gas.”

“So eat a sandwich, lad,” the glowy, purple, Britishy guy said, leaned against the back of the couch Kevin was on and holding a plate out to him with a lazy air.

“Okay, fine,” Kevin sighed, accepting the plate and finally starting to look around himself. He was inside, on some hipstery couch that didn’t know how to just be couch-shaped, and besides the redhead and others from Foley’s team sitting and standing around Kevin’s couch, there were a handful of other people on the couch opposite. He’d heard Surge before, now he spotted her across from him, and right next to her, Laurie. Laurie? Laurie didn’t dress like that. She didn’t even know what a miniskirt _was_. Was that even a dress or a swimsuit?

“Hi, Kevin,” she said softly, lips smiling, brow slightly knit and nervous.

“... Hi...” he whispered, staring at her face for a second and then taking in the rest of her again. When his eyes got back to her face, she was flushing and looking down.

“Do you think I look slutty?”

“ _No!_ ” Kevin protested.

“It’s really hot here. It’s tropical...” Laurie explained, glancing away.

“ _You look amazing_ ,” Kevin spat out quickly, and then felt his own face heat up. “I- I mean...”

“Eat your sandwich,” the redhead said, sitting a few feet away in the corner of his couch.

He shot a quick glare at her. “Hey, mind your own--”

“ _Eat your sandwich_ ,” a chorus of three or four other voices snapped from around the room.

“Kevin, they’re serious. You passed out just a little bit ago,” Laurie said, worried. “You’ve got to eat.”

“I-- Y-Yeah, okay,” Kevin mumbled, guilt for worrying her crowding out the rest, and he took a few bites as everybody else hung around. And now he tried to actually notice who the rest of them were. The four he didn’t know, who had been there with Foley and Xavier when he woke up. Sofia sitting at Laurie’s other side, Brian, Dani, and that old classmate of hers. No Cessily, Sooraya or Santo. Kevin swallowed and murmured, “... So I guess most people pretty much hate me now.”

“They don’t know how to feel, and that makes them uncomfortable,” Dani said, as Kevin went back to eating, because it was a good excuse to not look at anybody’s face. “And I think that you probably don’t really know how to feel either, Kevin. Selene had time to get more than under your skin. You’re going to be questioning yourself for a long time, asking which thoughts came from your mind, which she put into it, and which were small sparks she fanned into flames.” She shifted, resting her hands on her knees and leaning forward. “For some of your old classmates, right now they’re struggling with the gap between logic and emotion. They know you were manipulated, but they still remember how hurtful it felt to see your face among the people who attacked us. Most of them don’t really know Selene directly and they don’t understand what she’s capable of in a visceral way.”

“Stop blaming her. She didn’t make me do anything,” Kevin said, staring down at the last few bites worth of sandwich in his hands.

Dani’s blond friend scoffed. “That bitch makes people literally _kill_ themselves for her, and they all think it’s their own idea,” she said. “She’s been doing it for _centuries_. You think _you’re_ magically stronger than the thousands she’s murdered?” Kevin wanted to snap at her, he shoved the sandwich in his mouth instead.

“You were let down by the adults in your life,” Dani said, putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder as the blond turned he head and glared off to the side. “That’s not on one single person, it’s on a lot of people. What’s important right now is how you move forward. Part of that is rebuilding relationships with former friends, and building new relationships with newer members of the community.” She gestured toward the four people in the room that Kevin didn’t recognize from anywhere before the pod room. “That’s Hope, Fabio, Eva, and Kevin MacTaggert.”

“Save on confusion, ‘Proteus’ is fine,” the glowy, purple guy said. “And t’be clear, yeh take a swing at our Josh, yehr powers won’t be the only thing that’s inside-out.”

“ _Dude_. Chill,” Fabio shot at him.

“... And you’re Foley’s clone-making team,” Kevin noted, and saw Proteus’s eyes narrow.

“Josh doesn’t like being called that, Kevin, he changed his name a few years ago,” Dani said calmly. “Please call him ‘Josh’ or ‘Elixir’.”

“ _Fine_. Jesus. Whatever,” Kevin groused, glaring down at the floor. “Guess everybody’s up _his_ ass now. Even _Julian_.”

Surge burst out laughing, and when Kevin glanced back up he saw Laurie glaring down at her knees. Was she mad at him for trash talking Foley? It was _barely_ any kind of trash talk.

“Allowing people to assert how they do and don’t want to be identified is important in a community like ours,” Dani said. “That goes for you too. Things are going to take some adjustment and some time for you, but I want you to know you can talk to me anytime. And Emma gets pretty busy these days, but if you feel more comfortable talking to her, I’m sure she’ll make time for you, just let her know.”

“Yeah, sure,” Kevin muttered, knowing that wasn’t going to happen because Miss Frost probably hated him now too.

Sofia got to her feet then. “Thank you, Dani, I’m sure Kevin appreciates that and everybody’s help, but he probably feels a little put on the spot,” she said, turning her eyes to him. “Maybe you’d like a more casual tour right now?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Kevin agreed quickly, gratefully, eager to get away from Foley’s team and the teachers, pushing himself off the couch.

“That’s a good idea,” Dani said with a little smile.

“Hey, here’s your phone,” the dark haired girl, Eva, said, holding a really nice phone out to him. “I set up your health calendar app with ‘hungry’, ‘meal’ and ‘snack’ buttons on the dashboard. Make sure to keep track.”

“Thanks,” Kevin said, taking it and being surprised at what a nice phone it was. Maybe five years in the future all phones looked like six hundred dollar phones. He poked the ‘snack’ icon, then tried the buttons on the side until one of them made the display go dark.

“Granola bars,” Fabio announced, holding a few out to him in one hand, with a pair of flip-flops dangling from the other. “And you should probably wear shoes.”

“No kidding. Fol-- Elixir didn’t give me any,” Kevin agreed, pocketing the phone and taking the new offerings.

“He was probably trying to make a point with the grass thing,” Hope sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’ll chew him out for getting cute.”

“Have fun,” Dani said, and then slight awkwardness crossed her face as she realized how canned that sounded. “Just try to relax and get comfortable. You’re safe. You’re home.”

“... Yeah, okay,” Kevin muttered, dropping the flip-flops on the floor and slipping his feet into them.

“Show on the road?” Surge called from next to a door he could see green through, Laurie, Sofia and Brian standing around in varying shades of awkward. Kevin shuffled over, feeling as awkward as each of them looked combined, and drifted outside with them. “If it wasn’t already clear, you’re not officially in trouble for what happened with Selene, but also she’s been told she’s not allowed anywhere near you. So, y’know, don’t try to go find her or somebody is going to be in trouble.”

“She’s here?” Kevin asked, not quite able to dissect the feelings that revelation stirred up.

“She’s on the island, but she’s not allowed in the Sextant,” Surge replied. “If you need closure or something there, then I think the powers that be would probably work it out, but I’m betting it won’t be any kind of _casual_ thing.”

“R-Right...” Kevin muttered, looking down at the grass for a minute, noting as he did that the flip-flops seemed to be doing the trick. Then he glanced hesitantly up at Laurie, and his stomach clenched as he found her looking right back at him. “... You... Somebody told you what I...?”

“Josh talked to me about it,” Laurie said quietly, her expression going pained. “The day I got resurrected, there was a lot going on, a lot of just... a lot, but after that, when he got done with stuff...” she paused and bit her lip for a moment and shook her head. “When he got done with the stuff he had to do at the Arbor, he took me to Montana, because my mom moved there, and on the way he- he told me about stuff... a lot of stuff that happened, and the stuff that’s happening now.”

“He got in trouble for that,” Surge noted quietly. “The Council gets real flustered about one of the Five leaving Krakoa without letting them know, or taking some muscle with them. Which, y’know, is exactly _why_ he didn’t tell anybody, because he totally would have gotten a ‘no’ and they’d’ve asked me or Dani to take her... Josh _usually_ plays ball, but he _occasionally_ reminds them that he’s ‘cooperative’, not ‘obedient’.”

Because Foley was some kind of big, _important_ guy now. Because he could resurrect people. Foley’s powers had always made him so annoyingly _better_ , and now he was freaking _Jesus_ or something. The last thing Kevin remembered, he’d figured Foley was his arch-nemesis, if people even really had those; now suddenly he was five years in the future and Foley was so far _past_ him, he could casually _resurrect_ Kevin (and fix his death-touch like it was _no. big. deal._ ) just to make _himself_ feel better. Asshole. “... Everybody’s so freaking _old_ ,” Kevin muttered, glancing back and forth between Surge and Sofia.

“Right?” Laurie agreed. “It’s- It’s-- I mean--” Her face squished up and she stumbled a little, drawing a breath that definitely sounded like about-to-cry. Sofia made a quick side-step into her and wrapped an arm around Laurie. “It’s just--” Laurie whimpered and sniffed, “--everybody grew up without us. N-Now we’re like- like little kids to you...”

“Julian keeps going back and forth between trying to pretend nothing’s changed and going into some kind of _neurotic_ big-brother mode,” Brian sighed, looking slightly more concerned than annoyed. “Like a week or so after we were, well, ‘back’ I guess, I twisted my ankle while I was running and Julian lost his God damn _mind_ , like I’d broken my _neck_ or something. Total meltdown. Flew me to the healing gardens and started freaking the fuck out at Healer.”

“I think after today’s little _incident_ , Dani’s going get him put back in mandatory therapy,” Surge said, grimacing a little. “And, y’know, sorry you had to get a broken face about it, but if it gets her the leverage to put his ass back on the couch, then I’m happy.”

“He shouldn’t’ve hit you,” Brian said, looking away. “It was a dick move.”

“He’s a _jerk_ ,” Laurie muttered darkly.

“Well that’s not even _news_ ,” Surge said with a casual shrug. “But he didn’t used to be a _triggery_ jerk. No excuses, and he owes you an apology, but... Yeah, I hope Dani can get an order from the Council to put him back on the couch.” She sighed. “... I’ll kick his ass to apologize to you, though.”

“Don’t. It’s not... So _what_ , you’re suddenly _friends_ now or something?” Kevin demanded, bristling at the alien weirdness of it all.

Surge raised an eyebrow at him. “There’s nothing ‘suddenly’ about it. Shit _changed_. All the red-team-blue-team shit went away pretty fast after the Purifiers started literally _killing_ us,” she retorted, and ran a hand back through her hair. “We just... got tired of contrived bullshit and moved _on_. Julian and me even went in on an apartment together after we left the Jean Gray School.”

“Are you- Are you a _couple?_ ” Kevin asked, glancing from her to Sofia, who didn’t look like she really cared.

Surge started laughing hard, and shook her head. “ _N-No_ ,” she pushed out, and continued snickering for a minute. “You are gonna just _shit..._ ” she muttered.

“It’s hard, I know,” Sofia said. “How much everybody grew up and changed... It’s a shock for me, and _I_ was only just in Venezuela... But you’re not alone. None of us are alone now.”

Kevin started slightly as something touched his bare palm, and he looked down to see Laurie’s fingers wrapping tentatively around his hand. Nightmare images flashed across his mind of the last time he’d tried to touch her hand. But nothing happened. Nothing but the feeling of warm, soft skin against his. After a minute, he dared to grip her hand back, holding his breath. And still the nightmare stayed at bay. “... I hated him,” he said quietly, and found himself blinking quickly. “Elixir. I hated him. I thought it was his fault you died... And I don’t know if... I don’t know if I really _believed_ it or if it was something like Dani said... a small thing that Selene made into a big thing... I don’t know... Maybe that was stupid? I should have been hating the Purifiers like everybody else...” He swallowed. “... And now it’s even more stupid... I think I kinda hate him for making it so I can’t have a reason to hate him.”

“I’m more stupid,” Laurie said, shaking her head and making a sound that was equal parts sob and laugh. “I hate him for growing up... That’s pretty stupid, right?”

“Getting _old_. What a dickhead,” Kevin said, shooting her a grin, and this time the sound Laurie made was at least seventy-five percent laugh.

000

“... Laura would’ve shanked him,” Julian murmured, chin brushing Josh’s neck.

“No, Laura would’ve realized that a resurrection takes a bit of time and effort, so she wouldn’t have made me start over, because Laura’s a fucking _rational_ person,” Josh retorted, fingers carding slowly through Julian’s hair. “ _Ass_.”

“I didn’t make you ‘start over’,” Julian snorted without any real energy. He felt somewhere in between lazy and outright drowsy. “I shot across his bow.”

“Breaking _bone_ is not a ‘shot across the bow’, you dick,” Josh groaned, and then turned his head a little so his cheek leaned against Julian’s forehead. “... So is that why you decided you have to be twice as mean? You figured while Laura’s away it’s your job to make up the difference?”

“ _No_ , it’s to make up _your_ difference,” Julian shot back, closing his eyes. “I have to be twice as mean because _you_ forgot how to be mean, and you were never _good_ at it anyway. You fucking crybaby.”

“You don’t get to make me an excuse for turning anybody into your punching bag,” Josh whispered. He showed he was serious by not following up with a dig.

“... Why _him?_ ” Julian whined softly. “He _destroyed_ you.”

“That’s _why_ him,” Josh replied. “Stop thinking about it like he got away with something, because number one, he _didn’t_ , and number two, have you considered that maybe I did this for _me?_ ”

Julian squeezed his eyes shut tighter as he felt a brief tremor cut through him. “... What if he comes after you again?”

“What’s he gonna do, stick a _knife_ in me?” Josh sighed. “I don’t think he’s going to try anything, and if he does... then I’m probably going to have to protect him from Proteus. Or _you_.”

Julian tilted his head a little to press his lips against Josh’s neck for a minute, then flinched and grimaced at the sound of a fist against his door. “ _G’way_ ,” he groused, probably not really loud enough.

“ _It’s work-safe!_ ” Josh called; damn him.

Julian heard the door open, followed by Cessily’s voice. “So you didn’t actually answer questions like you said you were going to,” she noted.

“Sorry,” Josh said, as Julian sighed and pulled away from him, sitting up to cast Cessily a grumpy frown.

She ignored it, crossing her arms and leaning against Julian’s doorjamb, eyes on Josh. “You explain the grass thing to me?” she asked.

“On a technical level? How many years of post-grad biology do you have under your belt?” Josh said, pushing himself up and then hugging his knees against his chest as he looked back at her. “In simple terms, I turned his powers inside out like a sock.”

“He fainted, like, _right_ after you left,” Cessily said. “He said something about the grass eating him, and then he just swooned and fell over.”

“Mm...” Josh nodded slowly, looking thoughtful andpicking absently at the edge of his sleeve. “Did a lot of people see it?”

Cessily frowned, raising one eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Good.”

She stared at him, the other eyebrow going up. “... ‘ _Good_ ’,” she repeated.

“That puts the side-effects in nice big, bold letters on the side of the bottle.” Josh shrugged. “If this thing looked like a ‘miracle’ or something, I think we’d suddenly be getting a whole lot of people writing up some sly resurrection-wills and engaging in risky behavior to speed it along,” he explained. “Better if they all hear about the caveat emptor up front, so they know mutation modding has consequences and isn’t some cure-all.”

There was a minute or two of stunned silence as Cessily and Julian both stared at him. “... _Fuck_ , Josh,” Julian whispered, feeling chilled the more his words sank in.

“... Are you... Were you making an _example_ of him?” Cessily asked quietly.

“I mean, a _literal_ example, yeah, more or less,” Josh admitted. “But not in a _punishment_ way. I’m pretty sure he’s honestly going to prefer this over what he had going before. Yeah it’s going to take some adjustment, and he’s still going to have to be careful about how he interacts with the world, but he can actually touch people now.” He drew a deep breath and sighed it out, then shook his head slightly. “... And he’s been declawed.”

“... Josh, you’re doing that thing again, where you say shit that sounds _creepy_ ,” Cessily said after another minute of silence.

“You mean where I don’t sugarcoat the truth or equivocate,” Josh replied.

“And you’re obviously not going to _repeat_ that creepy shit, and we’re not either,” Julian noted darkly, glancing from him to Cessily, who pursed her lips and nodded as she met his eyes.

Josh nodded too, gazing off into space. “It’s _not_ punishment, and it’s not personal, not totally. I mean, yeah, maybe his name was the first one to come to mind because I want to stop waking up in a cold sweat, but he also made a perfect proof of concept,” he said. “He literally _couldn’t_ be resurrected as-is, we tried and he burned out his egg. I knew he would before we started, but we tried so that we’d be able to tell the Council we tried... He was the perfect choice, because we’d be able to justify to the Council there was no alternative, and because I figured he’d put a few downsides on display that anybody could easily understand.”

“... Does he _know_ all that?” Cessily asked.

“I’m sure it’s going to come up that he’s the first mutant to have work done,” Josh replied. “If he hasn’t already realized he was a guinea pig, he probably will sooner rather than later. Whether he ever realizes he’s a poster-boy? Eh.” He shrugged again.

“... Have you been hanging out with Mister Sinister?” Cessily asked, cringing at him a little.

“Ugh, _no_. I avoid being in the same _room_ with him outside of the Council chamber. Since he decided it’s my ‘responsibility to the gene pool’ to father children with ‘a variety of partners’ and he isn’t shy about telling me so.” Josh grimaced. “Anyway, when _he_ screws with somebody’s genes, the explanation is ‘because I can’. I think the fact that I _have_ reasons should be considered a _good_ thing.”

“Yeah, this sounds more like too much hanging out with _McCoy_ instead of Sinister,” Julian groaned.

Cessily sighed and shook her head. “Look, I think you’re probably objectively right, and this is some kind of win-win... but don’t be creepy, Josh. Or I’m gonna tattle on you when Laura gets back.”

“I’ll tattle on myself. She’d probably be side-eyeing it as ‘convenient’ if I didn’t,” Josh replied.

Cessily nodded, and then turned her eyes to Julian and pointed a finger at him. “Stay away from Kevin.”

“I _get_ it,” Julian snapped.

“ _Do_ you?”

“Yes!”

“Stay away from him.”

“I _get_ it!”

She turned her arm slightly so the finger was pointed at Josh. “Don’t be creepy.”

“I get it,” Josh replied.

“Okay.” Cessily nodded, and then grabbed the knob and pulled the door shut as she stepped out.

Julian drew a deep breath and then threw an arm across Josh’s chest and let out a long, tired, frustrated groan as he dragged him back down on top of the bed. After a minute of squirming to get comfortably curled together again, they settled; Julian lay with his eyes half-open and unfocused, nothing but gold in front of them. “... I take back what I said about you not knowing how to be mean,” he whispered.

“He got what he wanted. He gets to touch people,” Josh murmured back. “And he’s providing a service by just _being_. He’s showing that we _can_ fix a terminal mutation if we have to, but that it should never be done lightly. That’s _helpful_. It’s good for the community to see. Is it ‘mean’ that he’s useful?”

“... You called him ‘declawed’, Josh.”

Josh sighed softly, running his fingers slowly up through Julian’s hair from the back of his neck to crown. “Maybe I’m projecting, but he might have wanted that too,” he whispered. “And seeming harmless, _feeling_ harmless, may help him ease into the whole social thing.”

“He’s _not_ social.”

“We don’t know what he was like before he manifested,” Josh retorted softly. “Maybe he had friends before his powers and his dad happened.”

Julian closed his eyes and shifted a little closer, brow to Josh’s cheek. “... You promise you’re not going to go full mad scientist, right?”

“Laura’s the one who’s supposed to point out where the line is. Mad scientists are her area of expertise,” Josh said dully.

“... She’s coming back, right?”

“... Cyclops wouldn’t have sent her anywhere he thought she couldn’t come back from,” Josh said. “He’d have too much to lose personally, and she’s too valuable an asset... She’s coming back.”

“... Yeah,” Julian whispered, suddenly appreciating Josh’s ‘creepy’ ability to mix an emotional reason with a practical one like they were chocolate and peanut butter. “Try not to do anything else Cessily has to tattle on ’til then.”

“Yeah okay,” Josh agreed. “I don’t have anymore mad scientist plans right now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not trying to be in the same universe as the Krakoa fic I wrote last year.
> 
> This came to mind after I read the most recent issue of Hellions (7) in which it seems to be suggested that somebody the Five resurrected has a lethal mutation. This element solved a minor preexisting character specific plot-hole for me, but also opened up a whole new one: the ethical implications of resurrecting someone with a fatal disease (presumably over and over?) intact. It kind of struck me as being like "Well we _could_ cure this child's leukemia, but we're not going to because it's part of his identity." While socially/politically it's important for the leaders of mutantity to maintain a hardline stance that "mutation is a gift. period." there have been a few canon cases over the years of mutations that manifest as a straight up fatal disease. Northstar, who had previously had an "ew, children, gross" attitude, first joined up to start being a teacher and mentor to the mutant youth after having a newly manifested mutant he was trying to rescue self-immolate in his arms (traumatized into caring). While canon is wibbly-wobbly on defining x-gene mutation and depends mostly on who's writing, it _usually_ seems to be the canon that mutations are random, so if you spin that wheel, sometimes you're going to lose hard.
> 
> "Parousia" is a Greek name for the second coming of Christ. The way Exodus was apparently just _following_ Josh around in between Bunn's X-Men runs gave me the head-canon that he decided Josh is the second coming, because he's spent basically his whole time in the comics trying to find _somebody_ to be the second coming for him (crusaders gonna crusade.) I think he met Josh and was like "A handsome young man who heals the sick with a touch and raises himself from the grave a few days after getting martyred? _CHECK_." Josh finds this very awkward and embarrassing. Others find it varying degrees of annoying or hilarious.
> 
> >>>"A portal. The Sextant's six miles away, I'm not walking," Foley answered.  
> Why yes, I _am_ the kind of incorrigible nerd who builds to-scale vector maps in order to accurately calculate canonical distances between landmarks...


End file.
